TEENAGER Nick Kyrgios has extended his remarkable Wimbledon debut into a dream last-16 showdown with world No.1 Rafael Nadal.

And the confident 19-year-old believes he’s capable of causing one of the All England Club’s greatest upsets in the biggest match of his life tomorrow.

Wildcard Kyrgios, the youngest man in the draw, rebounded from the high of his incredible win over Richard Gasquet to beat 68th-ranked Czech Jiri Vesely 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-2 in a rain-interrupted third-round match.

The last Australian left standing in singles at the grass court grand slam, Kyrgios will now face the 14-times grand slam champion Nadal in the sort of match he’s dreamed about since first picking up a racquet.

“Obviously 14 grand slams between us, so it’s going to be a good match,” Kyrgios joked.

“I’m overwhelmed with happiness.

“Making my fourth round at a grand slam and the opportunity to play Rafa, hopefully on Centre Court, it’s an opportunity I’m just going to embrace.

“I never thought I would be seeing Nadal in my fourth round Wimbledon in my 19th year.

“I thought it would take years and years of work to finally have an opportunity like that.

“To think that it’s going to happen in about a day is daunting, but so exciting as well.”

Nadal, Wimbledon champion in 2008 and 2010, reached the fourth round for the first time since 2011 with a four-set win over Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin.

However, he has shown some vulnerability, losing the first set in all three of his matches so far.

“I’m just going to go out there and play my game. I think that’s definitely enough to be competitive.”

Asked if he had belief he could even cause an upset, Kyrgios replied confidently: “yeah”.

Kyrgios’ win also ensured he will break into the world’s top 100 for the first time, a remarkable feat considering he was ranked lower than 800th at the start of last year.

The Australian showed no signs of an emotional or physical hangover from his incredible win over 13th seed Gasquet, in which he fought back from two sets down and saved nine match points, again coming from behind to clinch victory.

The Vesely match started almost two hours late due to morning showers but the first session of play lasted just 18 minutes.

Kyrgios trailed 4-2 when play was called off due to more rain and the players had to wait four-and-a-half hours for a resumption. The Australian failed to prevent 20-year-old Vesely closing out the first set but he dominated the match from there.

He banged down 26 aces and increasingly found ways to break down left-hander Vesely’s huge serve.

After the pair traded breaks in the fourth set, Kyrgios forged clear impressively, finishing the match off with a big serve and dropping to the ground in a Nadal-esque celebration.

“I think the rain delay played a massive part in that match,” Kyrgios said.

“He had a lot of momentum ... I thought I played some really good tennis in the last three sets.” Nadal earlier overcame Kukushkin 6-7 (7-4) 6-1 6-1 6-1 under Centre Court’s closed roof and he believes Kyrgios will prove a tricky opponent.

“Young players are very dangerous as always they have something special,” Nadal said.

Did you see Federer serve-and-volley on a second serve on the most important point of the match? (6-5 in the tiebreaker of the second)Just for good measure, The second serve winning percentage of all the winners were clearly higher than the non-winners..

I was reminded that the ball kids are the unsung heros of these events. When I was at the AO a few years ago, I sat next to one of the mothers and she told me about the rigorous training and selection that they go through, not to mention all the parental ferrying that goes with it .

Indeed. Greetings from London Airport. Looking forward to getting back to reasonable prices. London has lost a lot of its charm, too. Much better in the country. I was over in Worcester, mostly.

Interesting that you see more people hobbling round on sticks over here which confirms for me that health care is better elsewhere. Apparently there are long waits for what we would consider as routine surgeries.

Alex I also think Djokovic blew that match, which ironically put Tsonga in form for the rest of the tournament. it is not the first time I have seen this and it's not recent. Federer casually walked through a match many years ago in Rome against Filippo Volandri, and when he lost to Canas twice in a row in Indian Wells and Miami many years ago,l the first one was a half-hearted effort too. Rafa to his credit has never done that in Masters Series, although he has done it a couple of times in the grass court tournaments prior to Wimbledon. I find that a bit unacceptable also, especially in Masters Series. this a prticular case, considering that Djokovic came back from a terrific Wimbledon title and followed it up with a honeymoon and an extended vacation. I don't believe he started the Tsonga match with that approach but after the first few games he decided that he was off and perhaps he felt like he could benefit better from a good week of practice instead of a match schedule. there are penalties invilved for not showing up to a Masters Series so he may have gone into the tournament "let's see how I play first, then I'll decide" type of attitude. I don't believe Rafa's injury is a questionable case. If his intention was to blow off the two tournaments, which would be very unlike Rafa, he would have come up with an injury that did not require any visible paraphernalia, like a wrist cover.

Alex I also think Djokovic blew that match, which ironically put Tsonga in form for the rest of the tournament. it is not the first time I have seen this and it's not recent. Federer casually walked through a match many years ago in Rome against Filippo Volandri, and when he lost to Canas twice in a row in Indian Wells and Miami many years ago,l the first one was a half-hearted effort too. Rafa to his credit has never done that in Masters Series, although he has done it a couple of times in the grass court tournaments prior to Wimbledon. I find that a bit unacceptable also, especially in Masters Series. this a prticular case, considering that Djokovic came back from a terrific Wimbledon title and followed it up with a honeymoon and an extended vacation. I don't believe he started the Tsonga match with that approach but after the first few games he decided that he was off and perhaps he felt like he could benefit better from a good week of practice instead of a match schedule. there are penalties invilved for not showing up to a Masters Series so he may have gone into the tournament "let's see how I play first, then I'll decide" type of attitude. I don't believe Rafa's injury is a questionable case. If his intention was to blow off the two tournaments, which would be very unlike Rafa, he would have come up with an injury that did not require any visible paraphernalia, like a wrist cover.

hmmm, thanks for being nice to Rafa, but after stuff he pulled off in Hamburg for example, i can totally believe he faked this one....... maybe knee and stomach problems are getting kinda old and there are many of the wrist injuries ard recently so why not use it as an excuse this time , Novak's one was an obvious tank, Murray lost in a muggy way, no tank there, hope Amelie can teach him more than her choking skills

More of a tactical x's and o's type of entry in the MT-Desk this time around, for those interested in that sort of thing. It concerns the qualifying round match between Caroline Garcia of France (no 48) and Timea Babos of Hungary (no 102)..

Thanks Mert. Nice post. It had me musing about unnecessary double faulting. The ladies seem to be extremely good at it but there was more than enogh in the Hewitt-Meltzer match yesterday. It is always good to leave some role to chance to give you an advantage in a game (e.g. keep the ball in play).